Japan Flora: Rhizomes thick, loosely tufted; culms erect, ciliate-scabrons on the angles, nearly always hidden under the leaf-sheaths, 3-angled, 40-70 cm. long; lower leaf-sheaths bladeless, dark sanguineous-purple, the normal leaf-blades on the upper 2/3 of the culm, closely approximate, flat, linear-lanceolate, 4-8 mm. wide, the sheaths sharply 3-angled, sometimes hispid, the ligules conspicuous, ferrugineous, scarious; spikes 5-7, con­tiguous, the terminal staminate, linear, 1-3 cm. long, pale- ferrugineous, the lateral pistillate, cylindric, 15-40 mm. long, erect, densely many-flowered, peduncled, the bracts leaflike, at least the lower ones overtopping the culm, long-sheathing; pistillate scales ovate, obscurely ferrugineous; perigynia longer than the scales, 4-5 mm. long, suberect, broadly obovoid, 1-angled, ferrugineous-green, densely whitish tomentose, rather long beaked; stigmas 3.  Woods.

Honshu (s. Kanto Distr. and westw.), Shikoku, Kyushu; rare. s. Korea (variety), Formosa, China, and India.